The present invention relates to an electric terminal for press-in connection with coated conductors, particularly a flexible flat cable incorporating therein a plurality of conductors which are arranged in parallel, and to a connector which has a plurality of the terminals described above.
There have heretofore been proposed connectors, which are capable of press-in connection between conductors and terminals by locating a flat cable between a pair of connector blocks and applying a high pressure to the connector blocks to thereby cause a plurality of terminals, which are disposed on one of the connector blocks, to pierce through the coating of the flat cable. However, in view of the fact that a tight connection within a limited space is desired, the connectors of this type require that the distances between the tines of the terminals for the connection with the conductors be shortened as much as possible without failing to obtain a reliable electric connection. More particularly, as the conductors incorporated in a flat cable are closely arranged in position, the distance between the adjacent terminals should be proportionally shortened.
The present inventor has previously proposed a terminal for the press-in connection with a coated cable such as a flat cable (Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. Sho 50(1975)-80489). This terminal will be described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 1(A) and FIG. 1(B).
The terminal includes three tines 1, 2, and 3 which have a rectangular lateral cross section, and are arranged as illustrated. The coated conductors such as those located in a flat cable 6 are inserted, under pressure, in the press-in openings a' which is formed between the first tine 1 and the third tine 3 and between the second tine 2 and the third tine 3. At this time, the coating 6b of the conductors is broken through by the tines and thereby, there can be obtained the electric connection between the respective conductors and the corner edges a of the tines which are opposite to each other relative to the press-in openings a'. This type of terminal has a disadvantage in that since the press-in openings a' which are formed between the corner edges a of the tines are required to be large enough for the conductors to be inserted, the terminal cannot satisfy the requirement of shortened distances between the tines. When the distances between the tines are shortened by making the thickness of the tines small, there arise problems from the manufacturing point of view, i.e. problems with regard to the strength of the terminals and with regard to the processing technique. This terminal has further disadvantages in that since the connection is attained by causing the sharp corner edges a to be forcibly engaged with the conductors 6a, there is some possibility that the conductors will be cut and that, since the tips of the corner edges a are brought into connection with the conductors, i.e. the connecting area therebetween is very small, a highly reliable connection cannot be obtained.
In view of the disadvantages of the prior terminals described above, the present invention is proposed.